WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump took to Twitter Friday to attack the nation’s mail-in voting system, just weeks after making a statement that “2020 will be the most RIGGED Election in our nation's history,” but Ohio election officials have been repeatedly disputing his claims.
....Absentee Ballots are fine because you have to go through a precise process to get your voting privilege. Not so with Mail-Ins. Rigged Election!!! 20% fraudulent ballots?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 10, 2020
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said that Ohio has safeguards in place to protect against fraud.
News 5 Political Analyst Tom Sutton said that Trump’s claims seem to be a campaign tactic.
"I think what you are really looking at is a campaign tactic that Trump is using and that his campaign will likely continue to use to de-legitimize the results of the election given that it will likely rely a lot on mailed-in ballots," Sutton said.
A Dartmouth College study conducted to learn the effects of unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud on confidence in elections found that "exposure to claims of voter fraud reduces confidence in American election integrity" and furthermore it's a difficult bell to un-ring.
The study found that "exposure to fact checks does not reduce the damage from these accusations."
Sutton said that because national research, as well as research in Ohio, shows the traditional vote by mail voter tends to be older and lean more Republican, Trump would “likely benefit if more states went to all mail ballots come November."
While many of Trump's claims about mail-in voting are unsubstantiated, his claim that “election results could be delayed for months” was somewhat accurate. While it likely would only be delayed days rather than months, Ohio’s primary vote by mail took much longer than usual to tabulate.
